Spinoff Name Change For Cleveland TV Owner

It’s all the rage in communications. Large companies with holdings in both broadcast and print are spinning off their print properties from broadcast operations.

It’s already happened twice in Cleveland TV, and it’s about to happen again.

NBC affiliate WKYC/3 owner Gannett announced Tuesday that its newspaper side will become a separate operation this summer from its broadcast side, but unlike in previous splits, the broadcast part of Gannett will take a new name…TEGNA.

“We are pleased to announce the name of our new Broadcasting and Digital company, which combines one of the largest, most geographically diverse broadcasters in the U.S. with incredibly strong marketing solutions organizations,” said Gracia Martore, Gannett president and CEO. “TEGNA is a nod to the more than 100 year-old history of Gannett. While always reminding us where we came from, the new name also shows our innovative spirit and commitment to being a forward-looking company that empowers people, businesses and communities to grow and thrive.”

Apparently, “TEGNA” was born as a name by taking some letters out of “Gannett” and moving them around, anagram-style…making it, as the company puts it above, a “nod to the more than 100 year-old history” of Gannett. OK, then.

Jim Romenesko’s excellent site has some links and reaction to the new name. (Perhaps most important: Do NOT Google search the new name – with the letters G and N transposed – at work.)

Romenesko helpfully provides a link to the FAQ the current Gannett put out to employees on Wednesday, something the folks at 13th and Lakeside have presumably already seen.

And yes, that FAQ says Tegna should be always written in all-caps. You know how we feel about forced upper/lower case in made up brand names. Sorry, Ideastream, et al.

The move leaves CBS affiliate WOIO/19-MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43 as the only major local network affiliate which hasn’t gone through corporate changes above it. We don’t believe Raycom Media owns any newspaper assets.

ABC affiliate WEWS/5 owner Scripps split off its newspapers when merging with Milwaukee-based Journal. The two companies’ print assets combined under the Journal name in Wisconsin, and broadcast/digital remained in Cincinnati under the historic Scripps name.

And Fox affiliate WJW/8 went through a similar transition above it, when Tribune moved print away from broadcast. There was a slight name change on the broadcast side… the company on that side was renamed Tribune Media.

But it will take some getting used to, here, to type “Tegna NBC affiliate WKYC/3” when the split is done sometime this summer…